No images? Click here 10 MARCHBiden stars in Super Tuesday sequelFormer Vice President Joe Biden has enjoyed another stellar Tuesday, comfortably winning the Michigan, Mississippi and Missouri Democratic primaries. The 'three Ms' were half of the states to participate in the fourth largest polling day on the Democratic primary calendar. Biden also won the Idaho primary, while the races in Washington State and North Dakota were closer and have not yet been called. Following a shock Biden surge on Super Tuesday, the results of today's primaries dealt a devastating blow to the Sanders campaign Non-Resident Senior Fellow Bruce Wolpe says. “With Joe Biden's triumph in Michigan the nomination fight is effectively over, and Biden is all but certain to be the Democratic nominee for president. "Even If Sanders takes Washington, it's barely a consolation prize and will not change the outcome, with Biden expected to also win big next week in Florida, Ohio and Illinois. Biden versus Trump in November," Mr Wolpe says. NEWS WRAPCoronavirus threatens Capitol Hill
Certain US politicians turning a blind eye to science and the decision of WHO has rushed to stigmatise China and Wuhan under the pretext of COVID-19. We condemn such despicable behaviour. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang ANALYSISFinancial markets are sending dire signals, Australian policymakers need to listenDr Stephen Kirchner US and global financial markets have been sending signals for a long-time now that all is not well in the world economy. The trade war has taken a toll, not only on global trade volumes, but also industrial production and business investment due to increased uncertainty. The US Federal Reserve began cutting interest rates in August last year, while the Reserve Bank of Australia resumed its easing cycle in June after nearly three years of policy inaction. The COVID-19 outbreak has delivered a new shock to the global economy that has shut down much of China’s economy and increasingly other economies as well. While some have suggested this is a supply or real shock, the dramatic fall in the oil price and inflation expectations is telling us that the associated demand shock is going to be much more significant. The entire US yield curve now sits below the US Federal funds rate and the Fed is expected to ease again later this month. In Australia, this shock comes on top of the bushfires at the beginning of the year and the expectation that the Australian economy will likely contract in the first quarter. While policymakers can’t do much about the COVID-19 shock to supply, they can and should address the shock to demand. Unfortunately, the Reserve Bank has left Australia inadequately positioned to weather a global downturn. As I argued in the Australian Financial Review last month, the RBA has been dragging the chain on monetary policy, distracted by medium-term financial stability concerns that have led it to neglect its price stability and full employment mandates. As I wrote in May last year, ‘this approach itself carries financial stability risks. It gives the economy a much weaker starting point should a negative shock actually occur.’ That shock is now here. The federal government is looking to implement a circa A$10 billion spending and tax package to support the economy. Measures designed to directly address the incipient pandemic and its immediate consequences are obviously needed. As the downturn deepens, the federal budget balance will deteriorate, even in the absence of additional policy decisions by government. The government no longer has a choice about whether the budget stays in surplus. However, as the US experience with the global financial crisis demonstrated, there is no substitute for decisive action by monetary policy. As I argued in my USSC report on the lessons from the US experience with quantitative easing, low interest rates are not a constraint on the effectiveness of monetary policy. Unlike fiscal policy, monetary policy is quickly and infinitely scalable. It is relatively costless to implement and can be unwound quickly when no longer needed. By contrast, fiscal policy is a slow and leaky bucket. When central banks ask for help from fiscal policy, it is a sign they have not done their job properly. As the US economist Scott Sumner says, ‘estimates of [positive] fiscal multipliers become little more than forecasts of central bank incompetence'. Coronavirus, a trade war and strategic competitionA more robust approach to China is one of the few areas of bipartisanship in a highly polarised Washington, DC.
To understand where US China policy might be heading, please join the US Studies Centre for a conversation with Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian, the China reporter for Axios. Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian covers Beijing's influence and intentions and writes the weekly China newsletter at Axios. Based in Washington, DC, she was also the lead writer of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists' report known as the "China Cables", which detailed classified Chinese government documents revealing the inner workings of China’s detention camps in Xinjiang. DATE & TIME |